System and method for providing enhanced rewards to customers

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing rewards to a user are provided. Providing rewards to the user may include receiving transaction data associated with a user&#39;s purchase, determining a merchant and a category associated with the transaction data, and assigning the transaction data to a merchant icon or a badge icon in a graphical user interface. The merchant icon or the badge icon may comprise a progress bar that indicates the user&#39;s progress in reaching a milestone associated with the icon. Based on the transaction data, a number of loyalty points of a number of transaction points may be assigned to the merchant icon or the badge icon, respectively. Further, based on whether a total number of loyalty points exceeds a first threshold or a total number of transaction points exceeds a second threshold, a reward may be generated to the user when the first or second threshold is exceeded.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systemsand methods for providing enhanced rewards to customers.

BACKGROUND

Currently, users may earn rewards in the form of miles, points,discounts, cashback, and gift cards. A user may have a plurality ofrewards accounts, each with a different merchant, and each account mayhave different rules associated with it. For example, each rewardprogram and/or software systems may only be associated with onemerchant. As such, if a user signs up multiple reward programs atvarious merchant, the user would need to monitor different rewardprogram software systems for each merchant. Therefore, it may bedifficult for the user to keep track of the plurality of rewardsaccounts for various merchants.

Furthermore, existing rewards programs do not provide rich userinteraction to keep the user engaged and motivated to earn rewards. Manyusers using existing rewards programs tend to be indifferent towards therewards they've accumulated. In addition, with existing rewardsprograms, users are generally limited to viewing their own accumulatedrewards. For example, users may not be able to view other users'accumulated rewards when they access their accounts page. Therefore,existing rewards programs have no useful and creative way to allow usersto interact with rewards programs, interact with other users on therewards programs, and track not only their progress in earning rewards,but other users' progress in earning rewards.

In view of the above deficiencies, there exists a need for improvedsystems and methods for providing enhanced rewards to users. Further,there exists a need for an improved rewards platform that encouragesrich user interaction to keep the user engaged, informed, and motivatedabout their rewards. Additionally, there exists a need for improvedsystems and methods for providing enhanced rewards to users byincorporating social aspects to the rewards platform.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a user may be able tomonitor multiple rewards accounts using a single software. In someembodiments, the user may be able to link a plurality of rewards accountfor various merchants with one profile so that the user can keep trackof different rewards programs more easily. In addition, users may beable to interact with other users on the rewards platform, monitor otherusers' rewards on the rewards platform, and earn additional rewards forbeing a social user on the rewards platform. As such, a social platformmay be provided on the software associated with the rewards programs inorder to keep the user engaged and motivated about earning rewards. Suchimproved systems and methods have the potential to dramatically increaseuser engagement and loyalty, increase transactions and revenue forfinancial account providers, and increase retail sales at variousmerchants.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present disclosure, a computer-implemented methodof providing rewards to a user is provided. The method may comprisereceiving transaction data associated with a purchase made by a user anddetermining, based on the transaction data, a merchant associated withthe transaction data and a category associated with the transactiondata. The method may further comprise assigning, in a graphical userinterface, the transaction data to a merchant icon based on the merchantassociated with the transaction and a badge icon based on thetransaction category. The at least one of the merchant icon or the badgeicon may further comprise a progress bar indicative of a progress of theuser in reaching a milestone associated with at least one of themerchant icon or the badge icon. The method may further compriseassigning, in the graphical user interface, at least one of a number ofloyalty points to the merchant icon or a number of transaction points tothe badge icon based on the transaction data. Assigning at least one ofthe number of loyalty points or the number of transaction points maymodify the progress bar associated with at least one of the merchanticon or the badge icon. The method may further comprise determining atleast one of whether a total number of loyalty points associated withthe merchant icon exceeds a first threshold or whether a total number oftransaction points associated with the badge icon exceeds a secondthreshold. The method may further comprise generating a reward for theuser when at least one of the first or second thresholds is exceeded.

In another embodiment, the method may further comprise receiving ahistory of a plurality of transactions associated with the user andgenerating the reward based on the transaction history. The transactionhistory may comprise at least one of a time, a date, a location, anamount spent, a merchant type, a merchant name, a total number ofvisits, or a frequency of visits associated with the transactions. Insome aspects, the transaction data associated with the purchase maycomprise at least one of a credit card number used, a transactionamount, a transaction date, a transaction location, a merchant name, amerchant type, or a merchant logo associated with the purchase.

In another embodiment, the merchant icon may comprise a first progressbar and the badge icon may comprise a second progress bar. In someaspects, at least one of the first or second progress bars may becolor-coded based on a rule associated with at least one of the totalnumber of loyalty points or the total number of transaction points. Insome embodiments, at least one of the first or second progress bars maybe displayed in a first color when at least one of the total number ofloyalty points or the total number of transaction points reaches 25% ofthe first or second threshold. Further, at least one of the first orsecond progress bars may be displayed in a second color when at leastone of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 25% and 50% of the first or secondthreshold. Additionally, at least one of the first or second progressbars may be displayed in a third color when at least one of the totalnumber of loyalty points or the total number of transaction pointsreaches between 50% and 75% of the first or second threshold. Lastly, atleast one of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in afourth color when at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points reaches between 75% and 100% ofthe first or second threshold. The first threshold may be defined by themerchant, and the second threshold may be defined by a financial serviceprovider.

In another embodiment, the graphical user interface may comprise asecond badge icon associated with a total number of transactionsassociated with the user, and a third badge icon associated with afrequency of transactions associated with the user. In otherembodiments, at least one of the merchant icon or the badge icon may becolor-coded when at least one of the first or second thresholds is notexceeded, and at least one of the merchant icon or the badge icon may begrayed out when at least one of the first or second thresholds isexceeded.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a system forproviding rewards to a user is provided. The system may comprise atleast one memory storing instructions and at least one processorexecuting the instructions to perform operation. The operations maycomprise receiving transaction data associated with a purchase made by auser and determining, based on the transaction data, a merchantassociated with the transaction data and a category associated with thetransaction data. The operations may further comprise assigning, in agraphical user interface, the transaction data to a merchant icon basedon the merchant associated with the transaction and a badge icon basedon the transaction category. The at least one of the merchant icon orthe badge icon may further comprise a progress bar indicative of aprogress of the user in reaching a milestone associated with at leastone of the merchant icon or the badge icon. The operations may furthercomprise assigning, in the graphical user interface, at least one of anumber of loyalty points to the merchant icon or a number of transactionpoints to the badge icon based on the transaction data. Assigning atleast one of the number of loyalty points or the number of transactionpoints may modify the progress bar associated with at least one of themerchant icon or the badge icon. The operations may further comprisedetermining at least one of whether a total number of loyalty pointsassociated with the merchant icon exceeds a first threshold or whether atotal number of transaction points associated with the badge iconexceeds a second threshold. The operations may further comprisegenerating a reward for the user when at least one of the first orsecond thresholds is exceeded.

In another embodiment, the operations may further comprise receiving ahistory of a plurality of transactions associated with the user andgenerating the reward based on the transaction history. The transactionhistory may comprise at least one of a time, a date, a location, anamount spent, a merchant type, a merchant name, a total number ofvisits, or a frequency of visits associated with the transactions. Insome aspects, the transaction data associated with the purchase maycomprise at least one of a credit card number used, a transactionamount, a transaction date, a transaction location, a merchant name, amerchant type, or a merchant logo associated with the purchase.

In another embodiment, the merchant icon may comprise a first progressbar and the badge icon may comprise a second progress bar. In someaspects, at least one of the first or second progress bars may becolor-coded based on a rule associated with at least one of the totalnumber of loyalty points or the total number of transaction points. Insome embodiments, at least one of the first or second progress bars maybe displayed in a first color when at least one of the total number ofloyalty points or the total number of transaction points reaches 25% ofthe first or second threshold. Further, at least one of the first orsecond progress bars may be displayed in a second color when at leastone of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 25% and 50% of the first or secondthreshold. Additionally, at least one of the first or second progressbars may be displayed in a third color when at least one of the totalnumber of loyalty points or the total number of transaction pointsreaches between 50% and 75% of the first or second threshold. Lastly, atleast one of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in afourth color when at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points reaches between 75% and 100% ofthe first or second threshold. The first threshold may be defined by themerchant, and the second threshold may be defined by a financial serviceprovider.

In another embodiment, the graphical user interface may comprise asecond badge icon associated with a total number of transactionsassociated with the user, and a third badge icon associated with afrequency of transactions associated with the user. In otherembodiments, at least one of the merchant icon or the badge icon may becolor-coded when at least one of the first or second thresholds is notexceeded, and at least one of the merchant icon or the badge icon may begrayed out when at least one of the first or second thresholds isexceeded. In another embodiment, the transaction category may compriseat least one of food, travel, vacation, shopping, entertainment, healthand fitness, total number of transactions, frequency of transactions, ora total number of referrals.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, a system forproviding rewards to a user is provided. The system may comprise atleast one memory storing instructions and at least one processorexecuting the instructions to perform operation. The operations maycomprise receiving transaction data associated with a purchase made by auser and determining, based on the transaction data, a merchantassociated with the transaction data and a category associated with thetransaction data. The transaction category may comprise at least one offood, travel, vacation, shopping, entertainment, health and fitness,total number of transactions, frequency of transactions, or a totalnumber of referrals. The operations may further comprise assigning, in agraphical user interface, the transaction data to a merchant icon basedon the merchant associated with the transaction and a badge icon basedon the transaction category. The at least one of the merchant icon orthe badge icon may further comprise a progress bar indicative of aprogress of the user in reaching a milestone associated with at leastone of the merchant icon or the badge icon. The operations may furthercomprise assigning, in the graphical user interface, at least one of anumber of loyalty points to the merchant icon or a number of transactionpoints to the badge icon based on the transaction data. Assigning atleast one of the number of loyalty points or the number of transactionpoints may modify the progress bar associated with at least one of themerchant icon or the badge icon. The operations may further comprisedetermining at least one of whether a total number of loyalty pointsassociated with the merchant icon exceeds a first threshold or whether atotal number of transaction points associated with the badge iconexceeds a second threshold. The operations may further comprisegenerating a reward for the user when at least one of the first orsecond thresholds is exceeded.

In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method of providingrewards to a user is provided. The method may comprise receiving, from asocial networking site, encrypted data associated with a social mediaaccount of a user, and linking a loyalty profile of the first user tothe social media account of the first user. The method may furthercomprise receiving transaction data associated with a purchase made bythe first user, and determining, based on the transaction data, amerchant associated with the transaction data and a transaction categoryassociated with the transaction data. The method may further compriseassigning, in a graphical user interface associated with the loyaltyprofile of the first user, the transaction data to a merchant icon,based on the merchant associated with the transaction, and a badge icon,based on the transaction category. The method may further compriseassigning, in the graphical user interface and based on the transactiondata, at least one of a number of loyalty points to the merchant icon ora number of transaction points to the badge icon. The method may furthercomprise determining at least one of whether a total number of loyaltypoints associated with the merchant icon exceeds a first threshold orwhether a total number of transaction points associated with the badgeicon exceeds a second threshold. The method may further comprisegenerating a reward for the first user when at least one of the first orsecond thresholds is exceeded. The method may further compriserequesting, via the graphical user interface, permission from the firstuser to display, on the social media account of the first user,information associated with the generated reward, and transmitting theinformation to the social media account of the first user for displayafter permission is granted. The method may further comprise assigning,in the graphical user interface, additional loyalty points ortransaction points to the merchant icon after the permission is granted.

In other embodiments, the at least one of the merchant icon or the badgeicon may comprise a progress bar indicative of progress of the firstuser in reaching a milestone associated with at least one of themerchant icon or the badge icon. In some aspects, assigning at least oneof the number of loyalty points or the number of transaction points maymodify the progress bar.

In other embodiments, the method may further comprise requesting, viathe graphical user interface, permission from the first user to displayloyalty data associated with the loyalty profile of the first user onthe social media account of the first user. After permission is granted,the method may further comprise displaying the loyalty data to thesocial media account of the first user. The loyalty data may comprise atleast one of a number of badges unlocked, a list of badges unlocked,progress of the first user in unlocking badges, a total number ofloyalty points accumulated, rewards received, rewards redeemed, ormilestones met.

In some embodiments, generating the reward may further comprisereceiving a history of a plurality of transactions associated with thefirst user, and generating the reward based on the transaction history.The transaction history may comprise at least one of a time, a date, alocation, an amount spent, a merchant type, a merchant name, a totalnumber of visits, or a frequency of visits associated with thetransactions.

In other embodiments, the merchant icon may comprise a first progressbar and the badge icon may comprise a second progress bar. At least oneof the first or second progress bars may be color-coded based on a ruleassociated with at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points. In some embodiments, at leastone of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in a firstcolor when at least one of the total number of loyalty points or thetotal number of transaction points reaches 25% of the first or secondthreshold. Further, at least one of the first or second progress barsmay be displayed in a second color when at least one of the total numberof loyalty points or the total number of transaction points reachesbetween 25% and 50% of the first or second threshold. Additionally, atleast one of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in athird color when at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points reaches between 50% and 75% ofthe first or second threshold. Lastly, at least one of the first orsecond progress bars may be displayed in a fourth color when at leastone of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 75% and 100% of the first or secondthreshold. In some aspects, at least one of the merchant icon or thebadge icon may be color-coded when at least one of the first or secondthresholds is not exceeded, and may be grayed out when at least one ofthe first or second thresholds is exceeded.

In other embodiments, the method may further comprise providing a socialdashboard on the graphical user interface. The dashboard may compriseloyalty data associated with the loyalty profile of the first user andloyalty data associated with loyal profiles of second users. Loyal dataassociated with the loyalty profiles of the first and second users maycomprise at least one of a number of badges unlocked, a list of badgesunlocked, progress in unlocking badges, a total number of loyalty pointsaccumulated, rewards received, rewards redeemed, or milestones met.

According to another embodiment, a system for providing rewards to auser is provided. The system may comprise at least one memory storinginstructions and at least one processor executing the instructions toperform operation. The operations may comprise receiving, from a socialnetworking site, encrypted data associated with a social media accountof a user, and linking a loyalty profile of the first user to the socialmedia account of the first user. The operations may further comprisereceiving transaction data associated with a purchase made by the firstuser, and determining, based on the transaction data, a merchantassociated with the transaction data and a transaction categoryassociated with the transaction data. The operations may furthercomprise assigning, in a graphical user interface associated with theloyalty profile of the first user, the transaction data to a merchanticon, based on the merchant associated with the transaction, and a badgeicon, based on the transaction category. The operations may furthercomprise assigning, in the graphical user interface and based on thetransaction data, at least one of a number of loyalty points to themerchant icon or a number of transaction points to the badge icon. Theoperations may further comprise determining at least one of whether atotal number of loyalty points associated with the merchant icon exceedsa first threshold or whether a total number of transaction pointsassociated with the badge icon exceeds a second threshold. Theoperations may further comprise generating a reward for the first userwhen at least one of the first or second thresholds is exceeded. Theoperations may further comprise requesting, via the graphical userinterface, permission from the first user to display, on the socialmedia account of the first user, information associated with thegenerated reward, and transmitting the information to the social mediaaccount of the first user for display after permission is granted. Theoperations may further comprise assigning, in the graphical userinterface, additional loyalty points or transaction points to themerchant icon after the permission is granted.

In other embodiments, the at least one of the merchant icon or the badgeicon may comprise a progress bar indicative of progress of the firstuser in reaching a milestone associated with at least one of themerchant icon or the badge icon. In some aspects, assigning at least oneof the number of loyalty points or the number of transaction points maymodify the progress bar.

In other embodiments, the operations may further comprise requesting,via the graphical user interface, permission from the first user todisplay loyalty data associated with the loyalty profile of the firstuser on the social media account of the first user. After permission isgranted, the operations may further comprise displaying the loyalty datato the social media account of the first user. The loyalty data maycomprise at least one of a number of badges unlocked, a list of badgesunlocked, progress of the first user in unlocking badges, a total numberof loyalty points accumulated, rewards received, rewards redeemed, ormilestones met.

In some embodiments, the operations may further comprise receiving ahistory of a plurality of transactions associated with the first user,and generating the reward based on the transaction history. Thetransaction history may comprise at least one of a time, a date, alocation, an amount spent, a merchant type, a merchant name, a totalnumber of visits, or a frequency of visits associated with thetransactions.

In other embodiments, the merchant icon may comprise a first progressbar and the badge icon may comprise a second progress bar. At least oneof the first or second progress bars may be color-coded based on a ruleassociated with at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points. In some embodiments, at leastone of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in a firstcolor when at least one of the total number of loyalty points or thetotal number of transaction points reaches 25% of the first or secondthreshold. Further, at least one of the first or second progress barsmay be displayed in a second color when at least one of the total numberof loyalty points or the total number of transaction points reachesbetween 25% and 50% of the first or second threshold. Additionally, atleast one of the first or second progress bars may be displayed in athird color when at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points reaches between 50% and 75% ofthe first or second threshold. Lastly, at least one of the first orsecond progress bars may be displayed in a fourth color when at leastone of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 75% and 100% of the first or secondthreshold. In some aspects, at least one of the merchant icon or thebadge icon may be color-coded when at least one of the first or secondthresholds is not exceeded, and may be grayed out when at least one ofthe first or second thresholds is exceeded.

In other embodiments, the operations may further comprise providing asocial dashboard on the graphical user interface. The dashboard maycomprise loyalty data associated with the loyalty profile of the firstuser and loyalty data associated with loyal profiles of second users.Loyal data associated with the loyalty profiles of the first and secondusers may comprise at least one of a number of badges unlocked, a listof badges unlocked, progress in unlocking badges, a total number ofloyalty points accumulated, rewards received, rewards redeemed, ormilestones met.

In another embodiment, the operations may further comprise receiving asecond transaction data associated with a second purchase made by asecond user, determining whether the second transaction data is relatedto the transaction data associated with the first user, and providingadditional loyalty points or transaction points to the loyalty profilesof the first and second user when the second transaction data is relatedto the transaction data associated with the first user. Determiningwhether the second transaction data is related to the transaction dataassociated with the first user may further comprise determining whethera merchant associated with the second transaction and the merchantassociated with the transaction data associated with the first user arethe same.

Additional objects and advantages of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows,and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned bypractice of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this present disclosure, illustrate disclosed embodiments of thepresent disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explainthe principles of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary schematic diagram of a system for providingenhanced rewards to users based on transaction data, in accordance withthe embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary schematic diagram of a system for providingenhanced rewards to users based on transaction data, in accordance withthe embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 3A-3E show exemplary features of a loyalty profile provided on agraphical user interface, in accordance with the embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary process of providing enhanced rewards to auser, in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary process of providing enhanced rewards to auser, in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows one exemplary process of providing additional rewards to auser, in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows other exemplary processes of providing additional rewardsto a user, in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the disclosed embodiments,examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Whereverconvenient, the same reference numbers will be used throughout thedrawings to refer to the same or like parts. The disclosed embodimentsinclude systems and methods, for example, for providing enhanced rewardsto the users based on the user's transaction data. It should beappreciated, however, that the present disclosure is not limited tothese specific embodiments and details, which are exemplary only. It isfurther understood that one possessing ordinary skill in the art, inlight of known systems and methods, would appreciate the use of theembodiments of the present disclosure for its intended purposes andbenefits in any number of alternative embodiments, depending on specificdesign and other needs. A financial institution and system supporting afinancial institution are used as examples for the disclosure. Thedisclosure is not intended to be limited to financial institutions only.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a system 100 for providingenhanced rewards to users based on the user's transaction data accordingto various embodiments of the disclosure. The system 100 may includevarious network-enabled computer systems, including, as depicted in FIG.1 for example, a financial service provider 101, which may include aloyalty processor 104; a user device 102, which may include a loyaltyapplication 103; a loyalty database 106; a transactions database 107; amerchant 109; a social networking site 110; a transaction applicationprogramming interface (API) 105; a social API 111; and a network 108,which may be included as separate processors or combined into a singleprocessor or device having the multiple processors. The processors maybe combined, integrated, separated, or duplicated to support variousapplications. Also, a function described herein as being performed at aparticular processor or device may be performed at one or more otherprocessors and by one or more other devices instead of or in addition tothe function performed at the particular processor.

Financial service provider 101, loyalty processor 104, social networkingsite 110, and merchant 109 may comprise one or more network-enabledcomputers. In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1, loyaltyprocessor 104 is depicted as an integrated component of financialservice provider 101. Other exemplary embodiments may disclose loyaltyprocessor 104 as being a separate system from financial service provider101. Other exemplary embodiments may comprise loyalty processor 104being integrated into social networking site 110, merchant 109, and/or athird-party system. As referred to herein, a network-enabled computersystem and/or device may include, but is not limited to, any computerdevice, or communications device including, a server, a networkappliance, a personal computer (PC), a workstation, a mobile device, aphone, a handheld PC, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a thin client,a fat client, an Internet browser, or other device. The network-enabledcomputer systems may execute one or more software applications to, forexample, receive data as input from an entity accessing thenetwork-enabled computer system, process received data, transmit dataover a network, and receive data over a network.

The components depicted in FIG. 1 may store information in variouselectronic storage media, such as, for example, loyalty database 106 andtransaction database 107. Electronic information, files, and documentsmay be stored in various ways, including, for example, a flat file,indexed file, hierarchical database, relational database, such as adatabase created and maintained with software from, for example, Oracle®Corporation, Microsoft® Excel file, Microsoft® Access file, or any otherstorage mechanism.

The components depicted in FIG. 1 may be coupled via one or morenetworks, such as, for example, network 108. Network 108 may be one ormore of a wireless network, a wired network or any combination ofwireless network and wired network. For example, network 108 may includeone or more of a fiber optics network, a passive optical network, acable network, an Internet network, a satellite network, a wireless LAN,a Global System for Mobile Communication (“GSM”), a PersonalCommunication Service (“PCS”), a Personal Area Network (“PAN”), D-AMPS,Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless Data, IEEE 802.11b, 802.15.1, 802.11n and 802.11gor any other wired or wireless network for transmitting and receiving adata signal.

In addition, network 108 may include, but not be limited to, telephonelines, fiber optics, IEEE Ethernet 902.3, a wide area network (“WAN”), alocal area network (“LAN”), or a global network such as the Internet.Also network 108 may support an Internet network, a wirelesscommunication network, a cellular network, or the like, or anycombination thereof. Network 108 may further include one network, or anynumber of the exemplary types of networks mentioned above, operating asa stand-alone network or in cooperation with each other. Network 108 mayutilize one or more protocols of one or more network elements to whichthey are communicatively coupled. Network 108 may translate to or fromother protocols to one or more protocols of network devices. Althoughnetwork 108 is depicted as a single network, it should be appreciatedthat according to one or more embodiments, network 108 may comprise aplurality of interconnected networks, such as, for example, theInternet, a service provider's network, a cable television network,corporate networks, and home networks.

User device 102 may be any computer device, or communications deviceincluding, but not limited to, a server, a network appliance, a personalcomputer (PC), a workstation, a mobile device, a phone, a handheld PC, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a thin client, a tablet computer, asmartphone, a fat client, an Internet browser, or other device. Userdevice 102 may also be a tablet computer. Non-limiting examples of atablet computer include an iPad, Kindle Fire, Playbook, Touchpad, andthe like. User device 102 may be associated with an account holderhaving one or more financial accounts with financial account provider101.

In various exemplary embodiments, an account holder may be any user orentity that desires to conduct a financial transaction using one or moreaccounts held at one or more financial account providers, such asfinancial account provider 101. Also, an account holder may be acomputer system associated with or operated by such a user or entity. Anaccount may include any place, location, object, entity, or othermechanism for holding money or performing transactions in any form,including, without limitation, electronic form. An account may be, forexample, a credit card account, a prepaid card account, stored valuecard account, debit card account, check card account, payroll cardaccount, gift card account, prepaid credit card account, charge cardaccount, checking account, rewards account, line of credit account,credit account, mobile device account, or mobile commerce account. Afinancial account provider may be, for example, a bank, other type offinancial account provider, including a credit card provider, forexample, or any other entity that offers accounts to customers. Anaccount may or may not have an associated card, such as, for example, acredit card for a credit account or a debit card for a debit account.The account card may be associated or affiliated with one or more socialnetworking sites, such as a co-branded credit card.

As used herein, social networking site 110 may comprise a website thatallows a user to create an account and provide user-specificinformation, including interests, and network with other users based onsocial connections. Examples of social networking sites may include,without limitation, Facebook, MySpace, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter,Pintrest, Yelp, Foursquare, or the like. Social networking site 110 mayhouse social media profiles holding social media data for one or moreaccount holders, such as, for example, user name, user phone number,user address, user email address, user occupation, and/or user locationinformation.

An account holder may download loyalty app 103 to user device 102.Loyalty app 103 may provide a graphical user interface to accessservices provided by loyalty processor 104. The services may include aloyalty profile. User device 102 may also access the loyalty profileusing a web-based interface provided by financial account provider 101and/or loyalty processor 104. When the user first launches loyalty app103 on user device 102, loyalty app 103 may prompt the user to create aloyalty profile. Loyalty processor 104 may create the profile inresponse to input from the user and store the account with loyaltydatabase 106. The user may create a username and password for theloyalty profile. The user may add other contact information to theprofile, such as a physical address, email address(es), phone number(s),social media profile information, etc.

Loyalty processor 104 may allow the user to link one or more financialaccounts at financial account provider 101 with their loyalty profile.The user may have a separate username and password associated with theirone or more financial accounts. The user may provide their financialaccount(s) usernames and password to their loyalty profile using loyaltyapp 103. Loyalty processor 104 may associate the one or more financialaccounts with the user's loyalty profile using the provided username andpassword.

Thereafter, the user may conduct a financial transaction (e.g., make apurchase) with merchant 109 using the one or more financial accounts.The transaction data may be stored in transaction database 107 by themerchant 109 once the transaction is completed. If the financial accountis linked with the loyalty profile, loyalty processor 104 may receivethe transaction data from transaction database 107 via transaction API105. The transaction data may include meta-data information such as thetransaction date, the transaction amount, a merchant identifier(associated with merchant 109), the transaction location, a merchantlogo, a merchant category, the number of the card used for thetransaction, the last four digits of the card used for the transaction,etc. Loyalty processor 104 may receive the transaction data andassociate it with the user's loyalty profile.

Loyalty processor 104 may store the transaction data in loyalty database106. The transaction data may be received on an hourly, daily, weekly,monthly, or other regular basis. Loyalty processor 104 may request thetransaction data from transaction database 107 at irregular intervals.Loyalty processor 104 may request transaction data for a user each timethe user logs in to loyalty app 103.

Loyalty processor 104 may credit the loyalty profile with loyaltypoints, transaction points, and/or badges based on the transaction data.The loyalty points, transaction points, and badges will be explained inconjunction with FIGS. 3A-3E. Loyalty processor 104 may credit the userwith loyalty points that can be redeemed at a specific merchant. Thenumber/amount of loyalty points and/or transaction points credited tothe user's loyalty account may be based on the number of times the userhas visited that merchant. For example, if a user has purchased coffeeat a particular coffee shop for the third time in a year using afinancial account that is linked to his loyalty profile, after thefourth visit, loyalty processor 104 may assign loyalty points to theuser's loyalty profile for that coffee shop. In addition, loyaltyprocessor 104 may assign transaction points to the Food badge on theuser's loyalty profile for making a transaction in the Food category.

FIG. 2 depicts an example system 200 for providing enhanced rewards to auser. As shown in FIG. 2, system 200 may include a client device 202, anetwork 204, a front-end controlled domain 206, a back-end controlleddomain 212, and a backend 218. Front-end controlled domain 206 mayinclude one or more load balancers 208 and one or more web servers 210.Back-end controlled domain 212 may include one or more load balancers214 and one or more application servers 216.

Client device 202 may be a network-enabled computer. Client device 202may be similar to buyer device 102 a and/or seller device 102 b. Forinstance, client device 202 may be any computer device, orcommunications device including, but not limited to, a server, a networkappliance, a personal computer (PC), a workstation, a mobile device, aphone, a handheld PC, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a thin client,a tablet computer, a smartphone, a fat client, an Internet browser, orother device. Client device 202 may also be a tablet computer.Non-limiting examples of a tablet computer include an iPad, Kindle Fire,Playbook, Touchpad, and the like. Client device 202 may be associatedwith an account holder having one or more financial accounts withfinancial account provider 101. Client device 202 may be configured toexecute one or more applications. The one or more network-enabledcomputers of the example system 200 may execute one or more softwareapplications to enable, for example, network communications.

Client device 202 also may be a mobile device: For example, a mobiledevice may include an iPhone, iPod, iPad from Apple® or any other mobiledevice running Apple's iOS operating system, any device running Google'sAndroid® operating system, including for example, Google's wearabledevice, Google Glass, any device running Microsoft's Windows® Mobileoperating system, and/or any other smartphone or like wearable mobiledevice.

Network 204 may be one or more of a wireless network, a wired network,or any combination of a wireless network and a wired network. Forexample, network 204 may include one or more of a fiber optics network,a passive optical network, a cable network, an Internet network, asatellite network, a wireless LAN, a Global System for MobileCommunication (GSM), a Personal Communication Service (PCS), a PersonalArea Networks, (PAN), D-AMPS, Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless Data, IEEE 802.11b,802.15.1, 802.11n, and 802.11g or any other wired or wireless networkfor transmitting and receiving a data signal.

In addition, network 204 may include, without limitation, telephonelines, fiber optics, IEEE Ethernet 902.3, a wide area network (WAN), alocal area network (LAN) or a global network such as the Internet. Also,network 110 may support an Internet network, a wireless communicationnetwork, a cellular network, or the like, or any combination thereof.Network 204 may further include one network, or any number of exampletypes of networks mentioned above, operating as a stand-alone network orin cooperation with each other. Network 204 may utilize one or moreprotocols of one or more network elements to which they arecommunicatively couples. Network 204 may translate to or from otherprotocols to one or more protocols of network devices. Although network204 is depicted as a single network, it should be appreciated thataccording to one or more embodiments, network 204 may comprise aplurality of interconnected networks, such as, for example, theInternet, a service provider's network, a cable television network,corporate networks, and home networks.

Front-end controlled domain 206 may be implemented to provide securityfor backend 218. Load balancer(s) 208 may distribute workloads acrossmultiple computing resources, such as, for example computers, a computercluster, network links, central processing units or disk drives. Invarious embodiments, load balancer(s) 208 may distribute workloadsacross, for example, web server(s) 210 and/or backend 218 systems. Loadbalancing aims to optimize resource use, maximize throughput, minimizeresponse time, and avoid overload of any one of the resources. Usingmultiple components with load balancing instead of a single componentmay increase reliability through redundancy. Load balancing is usuallyprovided by dedicated software or hardware, such as a multilayer switchor a Domain Name System (DNS) server process.

Load balancer(s) 208 and 214 may include software that monitoring theport where external clients, such as, for example, client device 202,connect to access various services of a financial institution or thirdparty (such as system 100 shown in FIG. 1), for example. Loadbalancer(s) 208 may forward requests to one of the application servers216 and/or backend 218 servers, which may then reply to load balancer208. This may allow load balancer(s) 208 to reply to client device 202without client device 202 ever knowing about the internal separation offunctions. It also may prevent client devices from contacting backendservers directly, which may have security benefits by hiding thestructure of the internal network and preventing attacks on backend 218or unrelated services running on other ports, for example.

A variety of scheduling algorithms may be used by load balancer(s) 208to determine which backend server to send a request to. Simplealgorithms may include, for example, random choice or round robin. Loadbalancers 208 also may account for additional factors, such as aserver's reported load, recent response times, up/down status(determined by a monitoring poll of some kind), number of activeconnections, geographic location, capabilities, or how much traffic ithas recently been assigned.

Load balancers 208 may be implemented in hardware and/or software. Loadbalancer(s) 208 may implement numerous features, including, withoutlimitation: asymmetric loading; priority activation: SSL Offload andAcceleration; Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection;HTTP compression; TCP offloading; TCP buffering; direct server return;health checking; HTTP caching; content filtering; HTTP security;priority queuing; rate shaping; content-aware switching; clientauthentication; programmatic traffic manipulation; firewall; intrusionprevention systems.

Web server(s) 210 may include hardware (e.g., one or more computers)and/or software (e.g., one or more applications) that deliver webcontent that can be accessed by, for example a client device (e.g.,client device 202) through a network (e.g., network 204), such as theInternet. In various examples, web servers, may deliver web pages,relating to, for example, online banking applications and the like, toclients (e.g., client device 202). Web server(s) 210 may use, forexample, a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP or sHTTP) to communicatewith client device 202. The web pages delivered to client device mayinclude, for example, HTML documents, which may include images, stylesheets and scripts in addition to text content.

A user agent, such as, for example, a web browser, web crawler, ornative mobile application, may initiate communication by making arequest for a specific resource using HTTP and web server 210 mayrespond with the content of that resource or an error message if unableto do so. The resource may be, for example a file on stored on backend218. Web server(s) 210 also may enable or facilitate receiving contentfrom client device 202 so client device 202 may be able to, for example,submit web forms, including uploading of files.

Web server(s) also may support server-side scripting using, for example,Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, or other scripting languages.Accordingly, the behavior of web server(s) 210 can be scripted inseparate files, while the actual server software remains unchanged.

Load balancers 214 may be similar to load balancers 208 as describedabove. That is, load balancers 214 may be implemented in hardware and/orsoftware. Load balancer(s) 214 may implement numerous features,including, without limitation: asymmetric loading; priority activation:SSL Offload and Acceleration; Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)attack protection; HTTP compression; TCP offloading; TCP buffering;direct server return; health checking; HTTP caching; content filtering;HTTP security; priority queuing; rate shaping; content-aware switching;client authentication; programmatic traffic manipulation; firewall;intrusion prevention systems.

Application server(s) 216 may include hardware and/or software that isdedicated to the efficient execution of procedures (e.g., programs,routines, scripts) for supporting its applied applications. Applicationserver(s) 216 may comprise one or more application server frameworks,including, for example, Java application servers (e.g., Java platform,Enterprise Edition (Java EE), the .NET framework from Microsoft®, PHPapplication servers, and the like). The various application serverframeworks may contain a comprehensive service layer model. Also,application server(s) 216 may act as a set of components accessible to,for example, a financial institution or other entity implementing system200 and/or system 100, through an API defined by the platform itself.For Web applications, these components may be performed in, for example,the same running environment as web server(s) 210, and applicationservers 216 may support the construction of dynamic pages. Applicationserver(s) 216 also may implement services, such as, for example,clustering, fail-over, and load-balancing. In various embodiments, whereapplication server(s) 216 are Java application servers, the webserver(s) 210 may behaves like an extended virtual machine for runningapplications, transparently handling connections to databases associatedwith backend 218 on one side, and, connections to the Web client (e.g.,client device 202) on the other.

Backend 218 may include hardware and/or software that enables thebackend services of, for example, a financial institution or otherentity that maintains a distributes system similar to system 200 and/orsystem 100. For example, backend 218 may include, a system of record,online banking applications, a rewards platform, a payments platform, alending platform, including the various services associated with, forexample, auto and home lending platforms, a statement processingplatform, one or more platforms that provide mobile services, one ormore platforms that provide online services, a card provisioningplatform, a general ledger system, a loyalty processor (e.g., processor104 shown in FIG. 1) and the like. Backend 218 may be associated withvarious databases, including account databases that maintain, forexample, customer account information, product databases that maintaininformation about products and services available to customers, contentdatabases that store content associated with, for example, a financialinstitution, and the like. Backend 218 also may be associated with oneor more servers that enable the various services provided by system 200.Backend 218 may be associated with one or more servers that enable thevarious services provided by system 100.

FIGS. 3A and 3B depict example embodiments of graphical user interfaces(GUIs) 300 that may be presented to the user on user device 102 vialoyalty application 103. In particular, FIG. 3A shows an exampleembodiment of an interface 300 on user device 102 for the user's loyaltyprofile. The interface 300 may include the name of the user for theloyalty profile. The interface 300 may also include an image of the userfor the loyalty profile. The interface 300 may display the number ofloyalty points 304 that the user has accumulated. If the user selectsoption 304, the interface 300 may display a series of merchant icons 306a . . . n, where each merchant icon corresponds to a merchant where theuser has previously earned loyalty points (based on purchases made withthat merchant using an account that is linked to the loyalty profile).The merchant icons 306 a . . . n may be displayed in order of where thecustomer made his most recent purchases. In this example, the lastpurchase made by the user was at Merchant A.

As shown in FIG. 3A, each merchant icon may include a radial progressbar 308 that is displayed around the merchant logo which indicates theprogress of the user in reaching a milestone associated with themerchant. For example, the radial progress bar 308 may be indicative ofthe number of loyalty points earned by the customer at that merchant,relative to some milestone. The customer may accumulate loyalty pointswith that merchant based on prior purchases made with that merchant. Thenumber of loyalty points received per visit will be determined by analgorithm. Loyalty points earned per revisit may differ from one revisitto another and from one merchant to another. Loyalty processor 104 mayretrieve transaction data and determine which transactions correspond towhich merchants based on the merchant identifier associated with eachtransaction. Loyalty processor 104 may assign loyalty points to theuser's loyalty profile based on the transaction amount, the transactiondate, how many prior visits and purchases the customer has made withthat merchant, and other factors. For example, the more times a uservisits a merchant a makes a purchase, the greater the number of loyaltypoints that loyalty processor 104 may assign to that user's loyaltyprofile.

Loyalty processor 104 may limit the number of loyalty points that a usercan earn with a given merchant. This limit may vary based on themerchant. The limit may be set by the merchant 109, the financialaccount provider 101, and/or a third party. FIG. 3B shows an exampleembodiment of a merchant interface for a user's loyalty points with aspecific merchant. The user may access this merchant interface byselecting one of the icons 306 a . . . n as shown in FIG. 3A. Theinterface includes the merchant logo 306 (in this example, a logo formerchant A). The interface shows the number of loyalty points 308 thatthe user has accumulated (in this case, 68 loyalty points). Theinterface may display the transaction history 310 of the user. Thetransaction history 310, for example, may be a list of the dates whenthe user has visited that merchant and made a purchase using an accountthat is linked to his loyalty profile. The transaction history 310 mayalso display the specific locations associated with the merchant thatthe user has visited previously. In this example, the user has madethree visits to the merchant A location. In other examples, thetransaction history 310 may list the location of each visit, a creditcard number used, a transaction amount, a transaction date, atransaction time, a transaction location, a merchant name, a merchanttype, or a merchant logo associated with the purchase and otherinformation obtained by loyalty processor 104 from the transaction data.

The loyalty points 308 may be displayed as a percentage and/or a statusbar. Each merchant may be associated with one or more milestones, orthresholds. A threshold may be a certain number of loyalty points that ause must accumulate with that merchant before being given access tocertain rewards or discounts associated with the loyalty account. Thethreshold may vary based on the merchant. The thresholds may be set byloyalty processor 104, financial account provider 101, the merchant 109,and/or a third party. When the user reaches or exceeds a threshold,loyalty processor 104 may provide one or more rewards to the loyaltyprofile and/or to the financial accounts that are linked to the user'sloyalty profile. In some embodiments, the loyalty processor 104 may sendan update to the loyalty database 106 that the user has reached orexceeded a threshold. The loyalty processor 104 may update the merchant109 that the user has reached or exceeded a threshold. The merchant 109may transmit a reward for the user to the loyalty processor 104. Theloyalty processor 104 may send the reward, such as a code, to the userdevice 102 for display. The loyalty processor 104 may update the loyaltydatabase 106 with information related to the reward(s) accumulated bythe user. The loyalty processor 104 may provide rewards points for acredit card account of the user. Loyalty processor 104 may credit one ofthe user's financial accounts with cash. The user may be provided withone or more gift cards for redemption at the merchant associated withthe milestone. The user may receive coupons, discounts, offers, and/orrewards for redemption with that merchant. The offer or reward may beprovided as a redemption code and/or bar code.

FIG. 3C shows an example embodiment of the merchant interface from FIG.3B when the user has met or exceeded a threshold for a given merchant.In this example, the threshold for merchant A is 100 loyalty points.Once the user has accumulated 100 loyalty points with this merchant inhis loyalty account, loyalty processor 104 may provide a reward 312 forredemption. The reward 312 may be a gift card, coupon, offer, discount,etc. that the user can redeem with the merchant (in this case, withmerchant A). This reward 312 may comprise a QR code or bar codegenerated by the merchant 109, financial institution 101, and/or loyaltyprocessor 104. The user may present the bar code/QR code at a physicallocation of the merchant (merchant A) to redeem the reward(s). Thereward 312 may comprise a redemption code, which the user may enter atan online website hosted by the merchant (merchant A). The merchant 109will validate the code and provide the discount/reward to the user. Insome embodiments, each discount/reward may comprise a unique identifier,and the merchant 109 may store the unique identifiers associated witheach reward transmitted to users in a database. The merchant mayvalidate the code by verifying that the unique identifier associatedwith the discount/reward exists in the database associated with themerchant 109. Once the user redeems the reward 312, loyalty processor104 and/or the merchant may mark the reward as redeemed so that the usercannot re-use it. In this way, the loyalty profile gives the user aunified loyalty profile as opposed to having to create a loyalty profilewith each merchant separately.

Loyalty processor 104 may also provide one or more “badges” to theuser's loyalty account based on the received transaction data fromtransaction database 107. A badge may represent a certain type oftransaction category and may be used to reward users for consistent,regular spending in a certain category. Loyalty processor 104 may createa plurality of badges, where each badge is associated with a transactioncategory. Data associated with each badge may be stored in the loyaltyprocessor 104, the loyalty database 106, the user device 102, or anycombination thereof. An example embodiment of the badge interface isshown in FIGS. 3D and 3E. FIG. 3D shows the badge interface that a usermay access by selecting the badges icon 302. In this example, the userhas 42 badges. The badges may be created by loyalty processor 104,financial account provider 101, merchant 109, and/or one or more thirdparties. Each badge is represented by an icon (shown as 314 a . . . n asshown in FIG. 3D). Initially, when the user first creates a loyaltyprofile, the badges may be in a “locked” state. As the user makespurchases and expenditures using his linked financial accounts, thebadges may be unlocked, based on the transaction category or categoriesassociated with the user's purchases. In other embodiments, a badge maynot be created by loyalty processor 104 in the user's loyalty profileuntil that user has made a purchase that falls within the badge'stransaction category (or categories). The badge interface may displaythe total number of badges the user has unlocked and all the badgeicons. The badges 314 a . . . n may be ordered based on the date thebadge was associated to a transaction. Most recent transactionassociations may be displayed first.

Badges may include, for example and without limitation, Food, Travel,Vacation, Entertainment, Health and Fitness, Sports, Shopping, Games,Calendar, total number of transactions, frequency of transactions, totalnumber of referrals made, etc. For example, the Food badge may beassociated with purchases made at restaurants. The Travel badge may beassociated with purchases related to traveling (such as airline tickets,train tickets, gas expenses, etc.). The Shopping badge may be associatedwith clothing purchases. A Games badge may be associated withelectronics purchases. Badges created by loyalty processor 104 may bebased on the location of a purchase. The Vacation badge may beassociated with purchases that are made outside of a certain radialdistance from the user's home address. Badges created by loyaltyprocessor 104 may be based on the timing of a purchase. A user'spurchase may be assigned to a Calendar badge if the user makes a minimumnumber of purchases within a certain time frame. For example, if theuser makes 10 purchases within a week, the purchases may be assigned tothe Calendar badge. Loyalty processor 104 can assign to single purchaseto one or more badges. For example, if the transaction data indicatesthe user spent $50 at a particular restaurant, this transaction will beassigned to the Food badge. If the transaction data indicates that therestaurant is located in a different state from where the user lives,the transaction data may also be assigned to the Vacation badge.

When loyalty processor 104 receives a user's transaction data fromtransaction database 107, loyalty processor 104 will determine thecategory for each purchase in the transaction data, and assign thatpurchase to one or more badges based on the transaction category. Thebadges created by loyalty processor 104 may be associated withtransaction categories. Transaction data associated with a user'spurchase may include a merchant identifier. The merchant identifier mayhave been previously associated with one or more categories (restaurant,electronics, grocery store, etc.) by financial institution 101, loyaltyprocessor 104, and/or a third party. When loyalty processor 104 receivestransaction data, it may assign each purchase to one or more badgesbased on the merchant identifier and the categories associated with eachof the badges.

Loyalty processor 104 may associate a threshold or milestone with eachbadge. Location processor 104 may assign a different threshold to eachbadge. The thresholds may be provided by financial account provider 101,merchant 109, and/or a third party. In order to “unlock” a badge, theuser must reach or exceed the threshold associated with the badge. Anunlocked badge shown in FIG. 3D may be grayed out, while a locked badgemay be shown in color. In other embodiments, an unlocked badge may be incolor, while a locked badge may be grayed out. FIG. 3E shows an exampleembodiment of the badge interface for a specific badge. In this example,the user is viewing the Vacation badge. The user may view a specificbadge interface by selecting the badge icon from icons 314 a . . . n (asshown in FIG. 3D). The badge interface includes the badge icon 314, aprogress bar 318 that shows how close the user is to unlocking thebadge, and a history of transactions 320 that have been assigned to thatbadge by location processor 104. In this case, the status 318 mayindicate the threshold for this badge (in this case, 10 visits to placesoutside the user's current state of residence). The status 318 mayindicate that the user is 80% of the way to unlocking the badge (8visits out of 10). The transaction history 320 may show the date andlocations of the most recent visits. The transaction history 312 mayalso show the amount spent, a merchant visited, etc. Thresholds may be,for example and without limitation, a predetermined amount that must bespent within that category, a minimum number of visits to merchantswithin the category, a minimum amount that must be spent at each visitwithin the category, location-based, and/or time-based.

In FIG. 3D, if the badge is in the locked state, the badge icon 314 a .. . n may be color-coded and a radial progress bar 316 may be presentaround the badge icon 314 a . . . n indicating how close the user is tounlocking the badge. The radial progress bar 316 may be color-codedbased on one or more rules from the loyalty processor 104. For example,if the badge is less than or equal to 25% completion, the radialprogress bar may be red. If the badge is between 25% and 50% completion,the radial progress bar may be yellow. If the badge is between 50% and75% completion, the radial progress bar may be blue. If the badge isbetween 75% and 100% completion, the radial progress bar may be green.

When a user has unlocked a badge, the badge icon 314 a . . . n may begrayed out and the radial progress bar 316 may disappear. The loyaltyprocessor 104 may provide rewards to the loyalty profile in differentforms once a user has unlocked a badge. The rewards may include pointsthat can be carried over to the user's credit card account points for afinancial account that is linked to the loyalty profile. The rewards mayinclude receive cashback that is credited to the user's financialaccounts. The rewards may include gift cards at various merchants, suchas merchant 109. The rewards may be associated with the badge categoryand/or associated with merchants that sell goods and services in thatcategory. The rewards may be coupons for merchants in the same categoryas the badge, but merchants that the user has not yet visited (based onloyalty processor 104 reviewing past transaction data for the user).

For example, if the user unlocks the Foodie badge by visiting 10restaurants within the required time period, loyalty processor 104 mayprovide one or more coupons or discounts to the user's loyalty account.The coupons may be for a restaurant that the user has not visited. Thecoupons may be for a restaurant that was previously visited by the user.The coupons may be for a restaurant that is similar to one or morerestaurants previously visited by the user. For example, loyaltyprocessor 104 may use a smart algorithm to provide one or more rewardsbased on the user's transaction history. The loyal processor 104 mayreview the transaction data associated with the user's loyalty profiles'badges (stored in loyalty database 106) and determine that eight of theten restaurants most recently visited by the user were Japaneserestaurants. Loyalty processor 104 may provide one or more rewards thatinclude discounts to a Japanese restaurant that the user has not yetvisited. The discounts may be further based on the location of the user(e.g., the discount may be for a Japanese restaurant in the user'shometown, or within a predetermined distance of where the user works).In other embodiments, transaction data may indicate that the user istraveling. The reward/discount may be for a merchant in the city wherethe user is currently staying.

In another example, a loyalty account holder (“John”) enjoys Mexicanfoods and lives in Chicago. John may unlock the Food badge in hisloyalty account by visiting 25 restaurants (out of which 15 are Mexicanrestaurants). In this example, there may be a new Mexican restaurant inChicago that is looking for new customers. If John has never visitedthis new Mexican restaurant in the past, the new Mexican restaurant mayinteract with loyalty processor 104 to provide one or more targetedadvertisements to John to encourage him to visit the new Mexicanrestaurant, based on his past visits to other, similar establishments.

The amount of the reward may be based on the past visits associated withthe unlocked badge. For example, if the user spent an average of $25 pereach restaurant visit over the minimum 10 visits, then the discount maybe for $25 off the next meal. Loyalty processor 104 may allow merchants,such as merchant 109, to directly provide discounts and rewards to theuser based on the user unlocking one or more badges.

In various embodiments, loyalty processor 104 may provide anadvertising/marketing platform where merchants and othercompanies/advertisers may reach out to potential customers. Advertisersand/or merchants may sign-up with financial institution 101 to advertiseto account holders who have a loyalty profile. Advertising may be in theform of offers, discounts, coupons, etc. When a loyalty profile holderreaches certain thresholds like unlocking a badge, one of theadvertisers' offers will be presented to the user as a reward forreaching the threshold. Loyalty processor 104 may use complex smartalgorithms to identify which ads to present to the account holder basedat least on their transaction history. For example, the complex smartalgorithm may utilize information associated with the user's pastpurchases and the user's location in order to determine which offerswould be most beneficial to the user and to the merchants 109 associatedwith the loyalty processor 104.

The rewards system, according to the exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure, provides an opportunity to merchants to utilize thisunified loyalty platform to reward customer loyalty. Since the systemcan track customer loyalty per merchant, every merchant can trackcustomer's loyalty towards their business (on reaching certainmilestones). The system can build custom merchant pages forparticipating merchants based on their needs. This way, the loyaltyprocessor 104 will evolve as a platform supporting the rewards programsof different merchants. This is great for merchants who cannot afford tobuild and maintain their own loyalty program/applications and/or like toleverage financial institution 101's loyalty platform. It is also greatfor customers because they will only need to maintain a single loyaltyaccount instead of creating multiple loyalty accounts with multiplebusinesses.

Loyalty processor 104 may exchange data with social networking site 110via social API 111. The user may use loyalty app 103 to grant loyaltyprocessor 104 permission to link to the user's social media account atsocial networking site 110 (for example, by providing a username andpassword associated with the user's social media account(s)). Loyaltyprocessor 104 may link the user's loyalty profile with his social mediaaccount using one or more APIs, such as social API 111. Social API 111may allow certain data to be transmitted so that social networking site110 may communicate with loyalty processor 104 and/or financial accountprovider 101. Social API 111 may prevent data other than approved datafrom being transmitted For example, the API may only support user name,user e-mail address, user identification information, and/or userlocation information to be transmitted from the social networking site110 to the loyalty processor 104. Also, social API 111 may allow theuser's relationship data to be transmitted to loyalty processor 104 ifthe user opts-in to allow relationship data to be provided to loyaltyprocessor 104. For example, relationship data may include dataindicative of a group of people, such as family, close friends, and/orcolleagues. In various embodiments, social API 111 may be part ofloyalty processor 104 and/or financial institution 101.

Social API 111 may provide encryption and filtering functionality toprevent, for example, identity theft and fraudulent transactions. Forexample, the social API 111 may filter out personally identifyinginformation that is unnecessary to carry out the claimed methods, suchas, social security numbers. A social API 111 may also encrypt, forexample, account and routing numbers to ensure that any passing accountidentifying data is secure during transmission and storage.

Loyalty processor 104 may post information about the user's loyaltyprofile to his social media account at social networking site 110.Loyalty processor 104 may request, via a GUI, permission from the userto display information associated with the user's loyalty profile on theuser's social media account. Loyalty processor 104 may allow the user todesignate friends and associates who have accounts at social networkingsite 110 to view loyalty data from the user's loyalty profile. Loyaltydata may include the number badges unlocked, a list of the badgesunlocked, the user's progress in unlocking other badges, loyalty pointsaccumulated per merchant, total loyalty points accumulated, rewardsreceived, rewards redeemed, milestones met, etc. Once permission isgranted from the user, loyalty processor 104 may post this informationto a feed or status associated with the user's social media account atsocial networking site 110. Once posted, the user's friends andassociates may have the ability to comment on the posts, “like” them,re-post them, share the posts, etc. Loyalty processor 104 may provideadditional loyalty points to the user's loyalty profile if the userpermits loyalty processor 104 to loyalty data to the social mediaaccount. For example, loyalty processor 104 may double the loyaltypoints received for each of the user's subsequent transactions based onthe user's decision to post status updates related to his loyalty dataand share it with friends and associates on his social media account.

Loyalty processor 104 may also provide additional loyalty points to auser who “tags” a friend on a post related to loyalty data. Loyaltyprocessor 104 may provide additional loyalty points if the tagged friendthen signs up for a loyalty profile within a predetermined period oftime. Loyalty processor 104 may generate a message or post for the userand provide it to the user to post to his social media site. The postmay describe a recent achievement of the user (e.g., “John just unlockedthe Food badge!”). Based on common interests and transaction historybetween friends, loyalty processor 104 will suggest places to visit tothe user. Merchants can sign up with loyalty processor 104 to reach outto users via this channel as well.

The loyalty profile of the user may include a social dashboard on thegraphical user interface. On the dashboard, various information may bedisplayed. For example, loyalty data associated with the loyalty profileof the user may be displayed, as well as loyalty data associated withloyalty profiles of second users. For instance, loyalty data obtainedfrom loyalty profiles of a user's tagged friends may be displayed on thesocial dashboard. As such, the user may be able to “like,” “comment,” orperform other social operations on information displayed on the user'sloyalty profile dashboard, thereby allowing the user to interact withthe user's connections and friends on the loyalty profile. Loyalty datadisplayed may include, but are not limited to, a number of badgesunlocked, a list of badges unlocked, progress in unlocking badges, atotal number of loyalty points accumulated, rewards received, rewardsredeemed, or milestones met.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing enhancedrewards to a user. This exemplary method is provided by way of example.The method 400 shown in FIG. 4 can be executed or otherwise performed byone or more combinations of various systems. The method 400 as describedbelow may be carried out by the system for providing enhanced rewards toa user, as shown in FIG. 1, by way of example, and various elements ofthat system are referenced in explaining the method of FIG. 4. Eachblock shown in FIG. 4 represents one or more processes, methods, orsubroutines in the exemplary method 400. Referring to FIG. 4, theexemplary method 400 may begin at block 401.

At block 401, a loyalty processor 104 may receive transaction dataassociated with a user from a merchant and/or a transaction database.The transaction data may include meta-data information associated withone or more transactions, such as a credit card number used, atransaction amount, a transaction date, a transaction location, amerchant name, a merchant type, or a merchant logo associated with thepurchase, last four digits of the card used for the transaction, etc.

Method 400 may continue to block 402, at which the loyalty processor 104may determine a merchant associated with the transaction data. Loyaltyprofile may comprise one or more merchant identifiers, where eachidentifier is associated with a merchant that is part of the loyaltyprogram. When a user makes a purchase with that merchant, thetransaction data may include the merchant identifier associated withthat merchant. For example, the loyalty profile may include a merchantidentifier for a merchant A. When the user purchases merchant A'sproduct, the transaction data may be received by the loyalty processorand the loyalty processor may assign that transaction to the merchantidentifier in the loyalty account. At block 403, the loyalty processor104 may assign the transaction data to a merchant icon associated withthe merchant on the loyalty profile of the user. For example, once theloyalty profile identifies merchant A as the merchant associated withthe transaction data, the loyalty profile may assign the transactiondata to the merchant icon associated with merchant A on the user'sloyalty profile.

Method 400 may further continue to block 404, at which the loyaltyprocessor 104 may assign loyalty points to the merchant icon on theuser's loyalty profile based on the transaction data. The amount ofloyalty points may be determined based on the number of times the userhas made a purchase with that merchant within a certain predeterminedamount of time. The loyalty account may be designed to reward customerswho make regular, repeat visits and/or purchases with a given merchant.The amount of loyalty points may be based on the amount the user spentin a given transaction. The amount of loyalty points may be based on thelocation of the transaction. The amount of loyalty points may be basedon the date and time of the transaction relative to a previous purchaseat that merchant. For example, the loyalty processor 104 may credit theuser's loyalty account with 2 loyalty points for every dollar spent in atransaction with a given merchant if that transaction was less than amonth after a previous transaction with the same merchant. If thetransaction was more than a month after a previous transaction, then theloyalty processor 104 may credit the loyalty account with 1 loyaltypoint for every dollar spent. The loyalty processor 104 may increase theamount of rewards points credited to the loyalty profile for eachsubsequent visit to that merchant. The loyalty points may be assigned tothe merchant identifier associated with the transaction. Thus, if theuser makes a purchase at merchant A, he may receive “merchant A” loyaltypoints. Assigning the number of loyalty points to the merchant icon maymodify the progress bar associated with the merchant icon. For example,if the user accumulates 50 loyalty points at merchant A, 50 loyaltypoints may be assigned to the merchant icon associated with merchant A,and the progress bar may be modified to indicate the additional 50loyalty points the user has accumulated with the transaction.

At block 405, for a given merchant identifier at the user's loyaltyprofile, the loyalty processor 104 may compare the total number ofloyalty points associated with that merchant icon with a threshold ormilestone associated with the merchant icon. The threshold or milestonemay be a predetermined number of loyalty points necessary to unlock oneor more rewards. The threshold or milestone may be determined by thefinancial institution, by the loyalty processor, by the merchantassociated with the merchant identifier, and/or by one or more thirdparties. At block 406, the loyalty processor 104 may generate a rewardto the loyalty profile of the user based on the comparison if the totalnumber of loyalty points associated with a given merchant icon exceedsthe threshold associated with that merchant icon (from block 405). Thereward may be based on the transaction history of the user. For example,the loyalty processor 104 may receive a history of a plurality oftransactions associated with the user, and generate a reward based onthe transaction history. The transaction history may include, but is notlimited to, a time, a date, a location, an amount spent, a merchanttype, a merchant name, a total number of visits, or a frequency ofvisits associated with the transactions. The reward may be a gift card,coupon, offer, discount, etc. that the user can redeem with themerchant. This reward may comprise a QR code or bar code generated bythe merchant, the financial institution, and/or the loyalty processor104. The user may present the bar code/QR code at a physical location ofthe merchant to redeem the reward(s). The reward may comprise aredemption code, which the user may enter at an online website hosted bythe merchant. The merchant will validate the code and provide thediscount/reward to the user. In this way, the loyalty profile gives theuser a unified loyalty profile as opposed to having to create a loyaltyprofile with each merchant separately.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method 500 for providing enhancedrewards to a user. This exemplary method is provided by way of example.The method 500 shown in FIG. 5 can be executed or otherwise performed byone or more combinations of various systems. The method 500 as describedbelow may be carried out by the system for providing enhanced rewards toa user, as shown in FIG. 5, by way of example, and various elements ofthat system are referenced in explaining the method of FIG. 5. Eachblock shown in FIG. 5 represents one or more processes, methods, orsubroutines in the exemplary method 500. Referring to FIG. 5, theexemplary method 500 may begin at block 501. Blocks 501 and 502 may besimilar to blocks 401 and 402 in FIG. 4. For example, at block 501, aloyalty processor 104 may receive transaction data associated with auser from a merchant and/or a transaction database. The transaction datamay include meta-data information associated with one or moretransactions, such as a credit card number used, a transaction amount, atransaction date, a transaction location, a merchant name, a merchanttype, or a merchant logo associated with the purchase, last four digitsof the card used for the transaction, etc.

Method 500 may continue to block 502, at which the loyalty processor 104may determine a merchant associated with the transaction data. Loyaltyprofile may comprise one or more merchant identifiers, where eachidentifier is associated with a merchant that is part of the loyaltyprogram. When a user makes a purchase with that merchant, thetransaction data may include the merchant identifier associated withthat merchant. For example, the loyalty profile may include a merchantidentifier for merchant A. When the user purchases merchant A's product,the transaction data may be received by the loyalty processor 104 andthe loyalty processor 104 may assign that transaction to the merchantidentifier in the loyalty account.

At block 503, the loyalty processor 104 may assign the transaction datareceived to a badge icon associated with the loyalty profile based on atransaction category associated with the transaction data. A user'sloyalty profile may comprise one or more badges, wherein each badgerepresents one or more categories for a transaction. Examples of badgesmay include, without limitation, Food (associated with spending atrestaurants), Travel (associated with travel-related spending), Shopping(associated with spending on clothes and/or electronics), etc. Badgesmay be based on the location associated with a transaction, or the dateand time. Examples of badges may include, without limitation, Vacation(associated with spending that is more than a predetermined distancefrom the spender's hometown), and Calendar (associated with a pluralityof transactions that occur within a predetermined period of time). Thetransaction data may include the merchant category, the date and time ofthe transaction, and the location. The location processor may assigneach transaction to one or more badges based on this information.

At block 504, for each badge, the loyalty processor 104 may assigntransaction points to the badge icon associated with the badge icon. Thetransaction points may be based on the number of times the user has madetransactions associated with a certain transaction category. Thetransaction points may also be based on the amount of purchase the userhas made in a certain transaction category. Assigning the number oftransaction points to the badge icon may modify the progress barassociated with the badge icon. For example, if the user accumulates 50transaction points at a restaurant, the 50 transaction points may beassigned to the Food badge icon, and the progress bar associated withthe Foodie badge icon may be modified to indicate the additional 50transaction points the user has accumulated.

At block 505, the loyalty processor 104 may compare the number oftransaction points to a threshold or milestone associated with the badgeicon. A threshold may be a minimum number of transactions for thatbadge. A threshold may be a certain level of spending for that badgewithin a period of time (e.g., $100 of spending on restaurants and/orfast food in the past month). A threshold may be location-based spendingand/or location-based transactions (e.g., $150 of spending on grocerieswithin 20 miles of the user's hometown). Loyalty processor 104 maydetermine whether the user has “unlocked” the badge based on thecomparison. If the user has met or exceeded that threshold for thebadge, method 500 may proceed to block 506, where the loyalty processor104 generates one or more rewards to the loyalty profile of the userbased on the unlocked badge. The rewards may be similar to the rewardsprovided in block 406 of method 400. For instance, the reward may bebased on the transaction history of the user. For example, the loyaltyprocessor 104 may receive a history of a plurality of transactionsassociated with the user, and generate a reward based on the transactionhistory. The transaction history may include, but is not limited to, atime, a date, a location, an amount spent, a merchant type, a merchantname, a total number of visits, or a frequency of visits associated withthe transactions. The reward may be a gift card, coupon, offer,discount, etc. that the user can redeem with the merchant. This rewardmay comprise a QR code or bar code generated by the merchant, thefinancial institution, and/or the loyalty processor 104. The user maypresent the bar code/QR code at a physical location of the merchant toredeem the reward(s). The reward may comprise a redemption code, whichthe user may enter at an online website hosted by the merchant. Themerchant will validate the code and provide the discount/reward to theuser. In this way, the loyalty profile gives the user a unified loyaltyprofile as opposed to having to create a loyalty profile with eachmerchant separately.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method 600 for providing enhancedrewards to a user. This exemplary method is provided by way of example.The method 600 shown in FIG. 6 can be executed or otherwise performed byone or more combinations of various systems. Each block shown in FIG. 6represents one or more processes, methods, or subroutines in theexemplary method 600. Referring to FIG. 6, the exemplary method 600 maybegin at block 601. At block 601, the loyalty processor 104 may receiveencrypted data associated with a social media account of a user. Forexample, loyalty processor 104 may access or receive data associatedwith the social media account of the user from a social networking site.The data may be encrypted to filter out personally identifyinginformation that is unnecessary to carry out the claimed methods, suchas, social security numbers.

At block 602, the loyalty processor 104 may link a loyalty profile ofthe user to the social media account of the user. Method 600 maycontinue to block 603, at which the loyalty processor 104 may receivetransaction data associated with a purchase made by the user. At block604, the loyalty processor 104 may assign the transaction data receivedto a merchant icon or a badge icon on the loyalty profile of the userbased on the merchant or the transaction category associated with thetransaction data, respectively. Examples of merchant icons and badgeicons are discussed above in reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. Based on thetransaction data, at block 605, the loyalty processor 104 may assignloyalty points to the merchant icon or transaction points to the badgeicon. At block 606, the loyalty processor 104 may compare the totalnumber of loyalty points or the total number of transaction points to athreshold or milestone associated with the merchant icon or the badgeicon, respectively. If the loyalty processor 104 determines that theuser has exceeded a threshold associated with the merchant icon or thebadge icon, then, at block 607, the loyalty processor 104 may generate areward for the user.

At block 608, the loyalty processor 104 may request permission from theuser to display information associated with the reward on the socialmedia account of the user. For example, loyalty processor 104 may send arequest for permission via the graphical user interface (GUI). The usermay receive a pop-up notification asking if the user will grantpermission to display information associated with the user's loyaltyprofile on the social media account of the user. Once the user grantspermission, at block 609, the loyalty processor 104 may transmitinformation associated with the user's loyalty profile, for exampleinformation associated with the reward generated, to the social mediaaccount of the user for display. For example, the loyalty processor 104may display loyalty data associated with the loyalty profile of theuser. Loyalty data may include, but are not limited to, a number ofbadges unlocked, a list of badges unlocked, progress of the first userin unlocking badges, a total number of loyalty points accumulated,rewards received, rewards redeemed, or milestones met. At block 610, theloyalty processor 104 may assign or reward additional loyalty points ortransaction points to the merchant icon or the badge icon on the loyaltyprofile of the user for granting permission.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating various processes for assigningadditional loyalty points or transaction points to the loyalty profileof the user. This exemplary method is provided by way of example. Themethod 700 shown in FIG. 7 can be executed or otherwise performed by oneor more combinations of various systems. Each block shown in FIG. 7represents one or more processes, methods, or subroutines in theexemplary method 700.

At block 701, the loyalty processor 104 may determine whether the userhas granted permission to display information associated with theloyalty profile of the user on the social media account of the user. Forexample, as discussed above, the loyalty processor 104 may requestpermission to the user to access the user's social media account andpost information associated with the loyalty profile of the user on thesocial media account of the user for display. The loyalty processor 104may determine whether the user has granted permission in response to therequest.

At block 702, the loyalty processor 104 may determine whether the userhas tagged a friend on information associated with the loyalty profileof the user and displayed on the social media account of the user. Forexample, the loyalty processor 104 may access the user's social mediaaccount and determine whether the user has tagged a friend, posted astatus, liked, disliked, or performed any other operations oninformation associated with the loyalty profile of the user that hasbeen displayed on the social media account of the user.

At block 703, the loyalty processor 104 may determine whether the user'stagged friend has signed up for a loyalty profile within a predeterminedperiod of time after the user has tagged a friend on informationassociated with the loyalty profile of the user and displayed on thesocial media account of the user. For example, loyalty processor 104 mayaccess the database and determine whether the user's tagged friend hasdownloaded the loyalty app and has created a loyalty profile of his orher own.

At block 704, the loyalty processor 104 may determine whether the userand the user's friend have made purchases together from a merchant. Forexample, the loyalty processor 104 may access the loyalty database anddetermine whether the user and the user's friend have made purchasestogether at the same merchant. Loyalty processor 104 may receive a firsttransaction data from the user and a second transaction data from theuser's friend. Loyalty processor 104 may, then, determine whether thefirst transaction data is related to the second transaction data. Oncethe loyalty processor 104 determines that the first and secondtransactions are related, loyalty processor 104 may generate and provideadditional loyalty points or transaction points to the loyalty profilesof the user and the user's friend. In order to determine whether thefirst and second transactions are related, loyalty processor 104 maydetermine whether the merchant associated with the first transaction ofthe user is the same as the merchant associated with the secondtransaction of the user's friend. For instance, the user and the user'sfriend may buy coffee or food together at a particular coffee shop.Loyalty processor 104 may access the database and determine that theuser and the user's friend have both made purchases together at thecoffee shop.

At block 705, the loyalty processor 104 may assign or reward additionalloyalty points or transaction points to the loyalty profile of the userfor tagging a friend, encouraging the user to sign up for a loyaltyprofile, and/or making purchases using the loyalty profile together witha friend. The user's friend may also be assigned or rewarded additionalloyalty points or transaction points to his or her loyalty profile.Blocks 701 to 704 describe exemplary methods of receiving additionalloyalty points or transaction points on the loyalty profile. However,the various methods of receiving additional loyalty points ortransaction points are not limited in any way to the methods describedabove.

It is further noted that the software described herein may be tangiblyembodied in one of more physical media, such as, but not limited to, acompact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a floppy disk, a harddrive, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), as well asother physical media capable of storing software, or combinationsthereof. Moreover, the figures illustrate various components (e.g.,servers, computers, processors, etc.) separately. The functionsdescribed as being performed at various components may be performed atother components, and the various components bay be combined orseparated. Other modifications also may be made.

In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have beendescribed with references to the accompanying drawings. It will,however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be madethereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in theclaims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to beregarded as an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method of providingrewards to a user, the method comprising: receiving transaction dataassociated with a purchase made by a user; determining, based on thetransaction data, a first merchant associated with the transaction dataand a transaction category associated with the transaction data; addingthe received transaction data to a history of a plurality oftransactions associated with the user, the transaction historycomprising at least one of a time, a date, a location, an amount spent,a merchant type, a merchant name, a total number of visits, or afrequency of visits associated with the transactions; assigning, in agraphical user interface comprising a plurality of activatable merchanticons and activatable badge icons, the transaction data to one of themerchant icons corresponding to the first merchant and to one of thebadge icons corresponding to the transaction category, wherein: themerchant icons and the badge icons comprise progress bars indicative ofa progress of the user in reaching milestones associated with themerchant icons and the badge icons; and upon activation of the merchanticons, the graphical user interface is configured to display profiles ofmerchants associated with the merchant icons; assigning, in thegraphical user interface, at least one of a number of loyalty points tothe merchant icon or a number of transaction points to the badge iconbased on the transaction data, wherein: assigning at least one of thenumber of loyalty points or the number of transaction points modifiesthe progress bar associated with at least one of the merchant icon orthe badge icon; determining at least one of: whether a total number ofloyalty points associated with the merchant icon exceeds a firstthreshold; or whether a total number of transaction points associatedwith the badge icon exceeds a second threshold; and generating a rewardfor the user based on a determination that at least one of the first orsecond thresholds is exceeded, wherein: generating the reward comprises:generating the reward based on the received transaction data and thetransaction history; and generating the reward for use with a secondmerchant different from the first merchant.
 2. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein generating the reward further comprises:receiving the history of the plurality of transactions associated withthe user.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thetransaction data associated with the purchase comprises at least one ofa credit card number used, a transaction amount, a transaction date, atransaction location, a merchant name, a merchant type, or a merchantlogo associated with the purchase.
 4. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the progress bars are color-coded based on a ruleassociated with at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points.
 5. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 4, wherein: the progress bars are displayed in a firstcolor when at least one of the total number of loyalty points or thetotal number of transaction points reaches 25% of the first or secondthreshold; the progress bars are displayed in a second color when atleast one of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 25% and 50% of the first or secondthreshold; the progress bars are displayed in a third color when atleast one of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 50% and 75% of the first or secondthreshold; and the progress bars are displayed in a fourth color when atleast one of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches between 75% and 100% of the first or secondthreshold.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: thefirst threshold comprises a threshold defined by the merchant; and thesecond threshold comprises a threshold defined by a financial serviceprovider.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thegraphical user interface comprises: a second badge icon associated witha total number of transactions associated with the user; and a thirdbadge icon associated with a frequency of transactions associated withthe user.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: atleast one of the merchant icon or the badge icon is color-coded when atleast one of the first or second thresholds is not exceeded; and atleast one of the merchant icon or the badge icon is grayed out when atleast one of the first or second thresholds is exceeded.
 9. A system forproviding rewards to a user, comprising: at least one memory storinginstructions; and at least one processor executing the instructions toperform operations comprising: receiving transaction data associatedwith a purchase made by a user; determining, based on the transactiondata, a first merchant associated with the transaction data and atransaction category associated with the transaction data; adding thereceived transaction data to a history of a plurality of transactionsassociated with the user, the transaction history comprising at leastone of a time, a date, a location, an amount spent, a merchant type, amerchant name, a total number of visits, or a frequency of visitsassociated with the transactions; assigning, in a graphical userinterface comprising a plurality of activatable merchant icons andactivatable badge icons, the transaction data to one of the merchanticons corresponding to the first merchant and to one of the badge iconscorresponding to the transaction category, wherein: the merchant iconsand the badge icons comprise progress bars indicative of a progress ofthe user in reaching milestones associated with the merchant icons andthe badge icons; and upon activation of the merchant icons, thegraphical user interface is configured to display profiles of merchantsassociated with the merchant icons; assigning, in the graphical userinterface, at least one of a number of loyalty points to the merchanticon or a number of transaction points to the badge icon based on thetransaction data, wherein: assigning at least one of the number ofloyalty points or the number of transaction points modifies the progressbar associated with at least one of the merchant icon or the badge icon;determining at least one of: whether a total number of loyalty pointsassociated with the merchant icon exceeds a first threshold; or whethera total number of transaction points associated with the badge iconexceeds a second threshold; and generating a reward for the user basedon a determination that at least one of the first or second thresholdsis exceeded, wherein: generating the reward comprises: generating thereward based on the received transaction data and the transactionhistory; and generating the reward for use with a second merchantdifferent from the first merchant.
 10. The system of claim 9, whereinthe operations further comprise: receiving the history of the pluralityof transactions associated with the user.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the transaction data associated with the purchase comprises atleast one of a credit card number used, a transaction amount, atransaction date, a transaction location, a merchant name, a merchanttype, or a merchant logo associated with the purchase.
 12. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the progress bars are color-coded based on a ruleassociated with at least one of the total number of loyalty points orthe total number of transaction points.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein: the progress bars are displayed in a first color when at leastone of the total number of loyalty points or the total number oftransaction points reaches 25% of the first or second threshold; theprogress bars are displayed in a second color when at least one of thetotal number of loyalty points or the total number of transaction pointsreaches between 25% and 50% of the first or second threshold; theprogress bars are displayed in a third color when at least one of thetotal number of loyalty points or the total number of transaction pointsreaches between 50% and 75% of the first or second threshold; and theprogress bars are displayed in a fourth color when at least one of thetotal number of loyalty points or the total number of transaction pointsreaches between 75% and 100% of the first or second threshold.
 14. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein: the first threshold comprises a thresholddefined by the merchant; and the second threshold comprises a thresholddefined by a financial service provider.
 15. The system of claim 9,wherein the graphical user interface comprises: a second badge iconassociated with a total number of transactions associated with the user;and a third badge icon associated with a frequency of transactionsassociated with the user.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein: at leastone of the merchant icon or the badge icon is color-coded when at leastone of the first or second thresholds is not exceeded; and at least oneof the merchant icon or the badge icon is grayed out when at least oneof the first or second thresholds is exceeded.
 17. The system of claim9, wherein the transaction category comprises at least one of food,travel, vacation, shopping, entertainment, health and fitness, totalnumber of transactions, frequency of transactions, or total number ofreferrals.
 18. A system for providing rewards to a user, comprising: atleast one memory storing instructions; and at least one processorexecuting the instructions to perform operations comprising: receivingtransaction data associated with a purchase made by a user; determining,based on the transaction data, a merchant associated with thetransaction data and a transaction category associated with thetransaction data, wherein: the transaction category comprises at leastone of food, travel, vacation, shopping, entertainment, health andfitness, total number of transactions, frequency of transactions, ortotal number of referrals; adding the received transaction data to ahistory of a plurality of transactions associated with the user, thetransaction history comprising at least one of a time, a date, alocation, an amount spent, a merchant type, a merchant name, a totalnumber of visits, or a frequency of visits associated with thetransactions; assigning, in a graphical user interface comprising aplurality of activatable merchant icons and activatable badge icons, thetransaction data to one of the merchant icons corresponding to the firstmerchant and to one of the badge icons corresponding to the transactioncategory, wherein: the merchant icons and the badge icons compriseprogress bars indicative of a progress of the user in reachingmilestones associated with the merchant icons and the badge icons; andupon activation of the merchant icons, the graphical user interface isconfigured to display profiles of merchants associated with the merchanticons; assigning, in the graphical user interface, at least one of anumber of loyalty points to the merchant icon or a number of transactionpoints to the badge icon based on the transaction data, wherein:assigning at least one of the number of loyalty points or the number oftransaction points modifies the progress bar associated with at leastone of the merchant icon or the badge icon; determining at least one of:whether a total number of loyalty points associated with the merchanticon exceeds a first threshold; or whether a total number of transactionpoints associated with the badge icon exceeds a second threshold; andgenerating a reward for the user based on a determination that at leastone of the first or second thresholds is exceeded, wherein: generatingthe reward comprises: generating the reward based on the receivedtransaction data and the transaction history; and generating the rewardfor use with a second merchant different from the first merchant.